Chemistry professor Omar Yaghi, in his own words

Omar Yaghi is one of the world’s great chemists. He was recently ranked No. 2 among the world’s top 100 chemists of the past decade, based on the impact of his published research.

In this UCLA Newsroom video, Yaghi talks about his pioneering research — a world of new matter, with exciting applications for clean energy — discusses how he makes discoveries and takes you inside his UCLA laboratory.

He and his research team have created an important new class of materials — materials that could have many useful applications, such as capturing heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions before they reach the atmosphere and contribute to global warming, rising sea levels and the increased acidity of oceans. Among the materials he has invented are metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), sometimes described as crystal sponges, which can efficiently store gasses.

Yaghi is a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry and of molecular and medical pharmacology. He is the inventor of reticular chemistry, which he also explains here. In addition to holding UCLA’s Irving and Jean Stone Chair in Physical Sciences, Yaghi is a member of both the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and the UCLA–Department of Energy Institute of Genomics and Proteomics.